frame rate not high enough

Question

My system: W10 (64bit),I7 CPU, 3 monitors, video card: Gigabyte 1050( tenfifty) with 2GB memory.  x-plane version 11.30.

I am enable to get the frame rate up about around 19fps despite moving all the sliders to the minimum position.  this gives reasonably good performance but as soon as I move the any slider to the first stop, the fps drops and the program will "shudder" and freeze for a second or two.  Is the problem the 3 monitor setup,  or?

I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Dan Landi8s (dpilot@dakineresearch.com (or danl@hawaii.edu).

Comments

the 11.30 upgrade (i use the term loosely) kills my FPS on my PC  by like 50% or more.  Oddly on my MAC it seems fine.

Answer 1

I have a similar issue with my 11.30, just updated! I have reduced all sliders but cannot get above 9. I have been off my m/c for 10 days, prior to which I could achieve 30-40 fpm.

system; Win 10 Pro (x64), Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3,  AMD FX-6100 Six Core Processor, 3624 megs, 3 core, 6 logical processors. 14 GB ram, 12 GB total phys' mem, 5.84 GB available phys' mem, 14.8 GB total virtual mem, 4.39 GB available virtual mem.

Answer 2

Yes, 3 monitors is the problem.  Driving 3 monitors is highly challenging even for a very high-end video card.  The GTX 1050 2GB is considered anemic for X-Plane 11—even for single monitor.

Also beware that any time the frame rate drops below 20, the sim is not keeping up in real time (running in “slow motion”), although the graphic might still appear smooth.

Comments

I took your  advice and bought a  MSI GeForce 1060 with 6G VRAM. Connectors: 4DP,DVI-D, and HDMI.  Connected the center display to the DVI-D, the left display to a DP, and the right display to the HDMI.  My system is 10(64 bit), 26GMRam, Processor InTel I7,  I followed all the suggestions in the manual to boost up the frame rate and I still could not get it above 14 to 15fps.  Any suggestions?

Dan Landis (danl@hawaii.edu)

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Well, in my last comment, I said the GTX 1050 is anemic.  However, I didn’t suggest a specific video card for your application.

Your new GTX 1060 6GB is an improvement.  It is a capable card for running XP11 at medium-high settings for a single display.  But like I said, three monitors setup is highly GPU-challenged, even to a high-end video card.  Flying over high density scenery, CPU is also important.

My guess is the GTX 1060 is powerful enough for this job only if you are willing to settle for low rendering settings (Visual Effects, Texture and Antialiasing).  You can run Windows’ Task Manager to observe the CPU and GPU loading.  I suspect the bottleneck to be the GPU.

You may find this video from Michael Brown informative.  It gives an interesting graphical comparison on various GPUs and various resolutions have on FPS.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZESwoaZWDo

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I wish I had seen Brown's You Tube before I bought the GTX 1060.   I looked up the  RTX's and it would seem at this time the 2070 would be sufficient.  At least until x-plane comes out with a new version which adds bells and whistles which in turn calls upon even more resources in VRAM and CPU.  But, there were many, many (even from the same manufacturer) versions of the RTX 2070.  Any idea what I should look for in the specs before I buy?  They range on Amazon between 450 and 599.

Cheers and thanks for your help.

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The RTX 2070 should be adequate to run three monitors (1080p) at medium to medium-high settings.  Of course, FPS will also depend on factors such as scenery and aircraft complexities.

I currently have an EVGA 2070 XC (upgraded from 1060!), and am happy running a single 1440p display.  If you want to have a rough idea of its triple-monitor performance, I can run a couple of scenarios to serve as reference points for you.  Let me know the rendering settings, sim location and aircraft type etc., you want to see.

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Thanks so  much and yuour offer to run a couple of scenarios.  I took your  advice and reset all the rendering setting to minimum and I now get between 19 and 20 fps.  I looked up your card on Amazon and it is (if I found the right one) listed at $599.  As for the scenarios, I fly out of Hilo on Hawaii Island (phto) in my 172M.  I use the same configuration for the x-plane.  At the minimum setting I use now there are now buildings or roads shown.  I'd be interested to see what you can come up with.  What I'm thinking of doing is to return the 1060 to Amazon and buy a 2070.  BTW, what outputs ports does your 2070 XC have?

Thanks for all your help.

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I meant "no" buildings and roads.

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I have the EVGA 2070 XC Gaming card, ($550 from B&H, early December).  Ports: I used up all three of its Display Ports.  It also has one HDMI and a USB-C outputs. 

I’ll PM you later with the sim finding.

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I checked the specs on your card and it seems to require a 650W power supply.  My supply is 500W.  Also, I noted that the slot is a PCIE x8, my graphics slot is x16....will that work?

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Hmm… 500W power supply may be marginal.  But not sure until you try it.

When I got the GTX 1060 (my first gaming card), I had an anemic power supply.  The whole PC shut down whenever I flew in or near clouds!  Lol.

The PCIe is not an issue.  Your x16 slot will work.

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Do you  or anybody reading this know of a 2070 level card that will run ok using a psu 500W?

Thanks